


love and other myths

by mythologies



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: F/F, I hope it's okay, It's really short, this is the first thing i've posted here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-16
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-04-26 14:26:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5008234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mythologies/pseuds/mythologies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Persephone and fem!Hades fall in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	love and other myths

'your mother won't like this,' hades says the third time they meet, her hands already wrapped around persephone, the air heady with promise.

'my mother isn't here,' persephone says, 'and anyway the sunlight is beginning to hurt my eyes.'

(the other gods ignore them now, when the entire planet seems too small to hold both of them, when they meet in the middle of a field and persephone tackles hades to the ground. sometimes love shouldn't be seen. sometimes they prefer this silence.)

* * *

usually when the moon breaks apart and disappears for a night, persephone visits the underworld. it isn't as scary as it had been the first time, all darkness and flames and people who don't understand why they never saw the sun. she had cried, then; now she walks through it like hades does. like a queen.

this time she carries flowers with her, holding them tightly against the death that presses in on all sides, the non-sounds and the non-smells of all this. things that used to have textures to them.

(now her fingers pass right through them, as if they aren't there at all.)

they're bright flowers, yellow; she wanted red, but thought the blood color would look too morbid amid all the black. the first time she brought red hades cried, and persephone held her until the flowers quietly fell to ash.

(nothing living here stays, but somehow she does.)

* * *

 'you should stay the night,' hades says when she gets out of bed to leave. persephone pauses, looks at the flowers set on the ornate nightstand. only one remains, now a pale white color. her mouth lifts sadly.

'you know I can't,' she says, not looking at her. 'you know that.'

hades waits until she leaves the room to let out the breath she hadn't known she was holding.

* * *

 'where do you go every day?' demeter asks, as persephone slowly chooses the best roses to pluck.

'it changes,' she says absently, eyes on the thorns.

'i see,' demeter says, letting silence fall. after a few moments she turns away.

she never liked thorns, especially when they aren't her own.

* * *

 in the castle hades had long since begun to think of as _theirs_ , music echoes throughout the halls, drawing persephone toward her. she follows the sound until it's at its most potent, until she can hear it as if it were alive. sometimes hades plays this music loud enough for the entire realm to hear, though never when persephone is there.

(she asked, once; hades only said it feels like a heartbeat.

persephone understood. she would miss hers too.)

at the source of the music is hades, standing quietly at a window. she lifts a hand as if to touch the glass but retreats before her fingertips press against it. persephone pauses, watching, and hades lets out a sigh that almost sounds like a sob.

 persephone creaks on a floorboard purposely, but hades doesn't move, only turns her head away as if hiding from her, and the movement breaks persephone's heart.

'you don't have to rule alone,' she says impulsively. hades still doesn't move. 'i could, too,' she presses. 'i could help you.'

'you'll die,' hades says finally, after a pause that felt like eternity. 'i can't keep anything alive, especially you.'

'i'll keep myself alive.'

* * *

 it happens in the dark, in the same place they met. persephone tells demeter she wants to search for flowers; her mother agrees, but insists her nymphs accompany her.

it only takes a moment to spot the brilliant red flower hades grew for her, after months of trying.

(persephone taught her, after that night in the tower. death doesn't have to mean lack of life anymore.)

she grins at her nymphs and dances over to the flower, reaching down and wrapping her fingers around it. behind her, the nymphs select flowers of their own, laughing, the sound like tinkling glass.

then the earth splits apart like bones,

and persephone jumps right in.

* * *

 'demeter will search for you,' hades says when they're safe. 'she'll tear the earth apart for you, like i did.'

'let her,' persephone says. she takes a pomegranate in her hand and if the juice of it runs down her chin like blood, she doesn't notice, only grins and presses bloodied lips to hades'.

* * *

 neither of them see the sunrise that morning. neither of them hear demeter begging zeus for her daughter back, but he only sighs, saying he can't force her. demeter says, 'it wouldn't be the first time you've done something against a person's will.'

so zeus opens a hole in the ground, and persephone rises from it like death, like the aftermath of a wound, like a warrior.

'you've lost your softness,' demeter says, crying silently. persephone lifts a hand to her cheek and pulls her in close.

'strength doesn't mean you can't be soft, mother,' she says gently, holding demeter as tightly as she can; demeter holds her just as hard.

 behind them hades smiles, and demeter lifts one arm to invite her in. 'come back to me,' demeter says when both of them are in her arms.

'every spring,' persephone promises, 'and maybe into the summer too.'

her eyes lift to meet hades', and her mouth quirks.

'both of us.'

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfiction I've written in years, I hope you liked it. I'm more comfortable with poetry, which is why the prose might be a little awkward. I guess this is technically an experiment in form?
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading it!


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